In the US Federal Census 1870, place of birth was recorded for the first time. I decided to search on ancestry today for all people recorded as having been born in Ireland (exact) and resident in a named State (exact). A word of caution here, the numbers are not always entirely accurate depending on search engine capability, the literacy of the enumerator, the accuracy of the transcription or indeed the report given by our ancestors to the enumerator. However, this list does give us some idea of the scale of the research necessary if we have been told that our ancestor settled in such and such a State. A further word of caution for those researching the Brennan name, many Irish people were not literate in the English language and I have found many phonetic spellings for the name Brennan, some of them very amusing. The highest concentration of the Brennan family name in 1870, (According to ancestry) was in New York with 1,319 followed by Pennsylvania with 377.

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I'm a Brennan with clear roots in Clawinch Island, Co. Longford (on the Shannon) Brennan Family Clawinch, Co. Longford and possibly in Kilteevan, Co. Roscommon.Clooncraff Families, Kilteevan, Co. Roscommon 1901As a child my father's people told me that our family came from Kilkenny originally and that Cromwell threw us out. This story has intrigued me all my life and of late I have begun to collect information about Brennans the world over. If you have Brennans in your family, you are cordially invited to join me and maybe we will get to the root of this family story, or maybe not...Martine​Brennan, Kerry, Ireland ~Heads of Households 1901PS It is hoped that information on this website will give you a starting point for your own research. If it has been helpful to you, I would be grateful if you would add any aditional information you have in the comments below so that together we can break down those brick walls.​FREE Autosomal DNA videos